The invention relates to a method of and to an apparatus for manipulating blanks which can form part of packets for cigarettes or other smokers' products. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in methods of and in apparatus for manipulating blanks which can constitute so-called shoulder pieces or understrips of containers known as hinged-lid packets for plain or filter cigarettes or the like.
As disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,543 to Seragnoli, blanks which are to be converted into the shoulder pieces of hinged-lid packets are separated from the leading end of an intermittently advanced body of coherent blanks, and the freshly separated blanks are introduced into discrete pockets of an indexible turntable for assembly with other constituents of hinged-lid packets. The properly installed shoulder piece of a hinged-lid packet extends somewhat beyond the open end of the main body of the packet and can be concealed by and then releasably engages and holds a lid which is pivotable relative to the rear wall of the main body of the packet.
A drawback of presently known and utilized methods of and apparatus for manipulating shoulder pieces and analogous blanks which are to form part of hinged-lid packets or the like is that successive freshly formed blanks must be advanced along a complex path on their way into the receptacles of a turntable or another conveyor. This increases the likelihood of misalignment, undesirable deformation and/or other adverse influences upon the blanks. Moreover, the transfer of a freshly formed or separated blank into a pocket or another receptacle of a conveyor takes up a relatively long interval of time.